That first Sunday, after a few scolding headlight flashes and a quick burst of Google, we got the message. We’ve known the next ten have been coming. The weather is almost always good - I don’t know quite how they swing that - and we’ve cycled and roller bladed and walked and run, gone to local knees-ups and city ones. We’ve queued for ice creams, petted police horses and collected conkers. I mention this because I’m drowning in nostalgia at the moment: the kind of nostalgia that physically hurts, not the soft-focus, delightful kind. This variety aches until it’s almost intolerable. I usually love this time of year; I land in September with relief, a sense of purpose and a bustle of work after summer rootlessness but this year the work hasn’t come and it seems to have left me open to this weird, achy sense of loss.

So we drove back from Cork last Saturday morning. We got into Dublin just before lunch and all was well. I dropped herself into town to meet some friends. Would she wear a coat? She would not. “I’ll be inside the whole time,” she said. My riposte – “You are meeting your friends in St. Stephen’s Green, that is a park. Outside,” – was met with withering disdain.

“Incredible waffle-maker for a great price. I’ve been making Belgian waffles for 20 years and this is by far my favorite maker. This maker makes two nice and thick Belgian waffles. The material of the plates is excellent and the waffles don’t tend to stick. By the time I’m done loading the batter for the second waffle, the first one is just about done. I can make waffles for my family of five and we can all eat together. Previously, with a single waffle-maker, I would either have to serve one at a time and then everyone eats at different times, of I would put the waffles in the toaster oven on warm and then they would get a little soggy. I don’t know why anyone would need to pay twice the price for a ‘higher-quality brand.’ It’s unnecessary!”

We also offer waffle irons with many attributes that add value for advanced chefs. Additional features include a variety of temperature settings, locking lids, countdown timers and chimes that announce the waffles are cooked. Some useful qualities for cooks of any skill level include griddle surfaces that don’t get gummed up with dough and moats to catch excess batter and keep it off the counter, which reduces the likelihood of messes and helps to simplify cleanup. Make the perfect pastry for serving cold desserts, such as ice cream or gelato, with specialty electric cookware such as a waffle cone maker. Properties like nonstick plates allow for easy cleaning, and they help make it possible to move quickly from completing one cone to starting the next without regreasing each time.

Bake fluffy, restaurant-style Belgian waffles in minutes with the Proctor Silex Belgian Waffle Baker. This waffle maker heats up fast and has a ready light to let you know when it’s preheated, so you can enjoy waffles in a matter of minutes. Oil or butter is typically not required on the nonstick plates making cleanup easy. Belgian-style waffles are fun for kids and great for breakfast on the go. Waffles can be prepared sweet or savory for a great addition to breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert.
When waffle making is completed, simply store your maker with the cord wrapped securely around base. Plug prongs fit into the special grooves on the side of the waffle maker. For compact storage, stand waffle maker on opening end so Cuisinart logo is facing you. The waffle maker has been designed with a special latching feature so the lid stays closed during storage.
Two lights on the Krups machine, one red and one green, indicate when it is preheating or cooking (red) and when the machine or the waffle is ready (green). These indicators are bright and easy enough to read (unlike some machines, where it’s hard to tell if the weak light is on or off). But unlike our previous pick, the Proctor Silex 26016A, the Krups GQ502D also beeps loudly when it’s ready, which means you can focus on frying bacon without worrying about overcooking your waffles. While some other models we tested were hard to hear when they beeped, this one was loud enough that we could easily hear it from the next room, even with a radio on, but the sound is neither persistent nor so unpleasant that you won’t want to hear it first thing in the morning.

This batter also benefited the most from the flip mechanism found in some of the irons we tested, likely due to the fact that it's a thinner batter that flows flat into the iron. (The flip design delivers even heating by making sure that a thin batter receives equal contact with the plates on both the top and the bottom.) The waffles resulting from this batter browned more evenly in the flip models than in the stationary ones, with the exception of our high-end picks, the Breville and All-Clad, both of which performed excellently. Ultimately, though, aside from our top-rated flip model, we’d steer you toward our other top picks, including the budget ones, even though they’re stationary: They produced better waffles overall due to higher heat and shorter cook time, despite their uneven browning.

Toppings are fabulous, but the perfectly crisp, tender, and golden brown square waffles from All-Clad's Belgian waffle maker will leave you wondering, who needs butter and syrup anyway? It was one of the top scorers in all our performance evaluations and tied for easiest to use overall. Turn the dial to your preferred doneness setting, pour in batter (it's okay if you use too much — the removable moat tray will catch any excess), and go about your business until it chimes.

For our first round of testing, we made waffles using Stella’s buttermilk waffle batter. This batter relies on steam to puff the waffles, so it has a high level of hydration for a light and crisp result. With this batter, we found significant differences in the quality of the waffles made by each iron. Irons that didn't get hot enough weren't able to produce enough steam, resulting in heavy, dense, and soggy waffles, while those that heated up well produced very light and crisp waffles.

What we didn’t like: This is a big and bulky unit, making it a difficult fit in small spaces. Without a drip tray, there is potential for mess. (However, because it's a flip model, you need less batter to fill up the iron, so drips are also less likely.) There was some unevenness in cooking, with the edges browning a touch faster than the rest. The deep wells and fixed plates make cleanup difficult. Who doesn’t love waffles? It’s been around for hundreds of years, as far back as the 14th century. And it continues to be the king of the breakfast table today. In 2015, the Waffle House sold its one billionth waffle. And this restaurant was only established in 1955. Just think of how many waffles have been featured in the meals of people all over the world since the 14th century. We certainly can’t blame people for eating that many waffles. We love waffles too. And that’s why we want to help you find the best waffle makers in the market today. After all, your waffles are only as good as your waffle maker, right?